Fall = Good Fun, Good Food…plus CSA & mkts 9.30.2017

{pictured: our signature salad mix, as it grows in the field}Even though recent days are still nearing 90 degrees, the fall bug has bitten us and we are happy. Fall crops are coming in (radishes, turnips, cabbage and fennel are close…) but we still get to dine on the beloved summer fruits (peppers, summer squash, eggplant…). {baby Hearty Greens Mix pictured above} Thus, it’s the perfect time of year for lots of fun gatherings! We have numerous field trips and fall classes planned with our apprentices so we are traveling around our region most weeks. {pictured above: We’ve snuck a crop of sweet potatoes into the mix this year…it’s looking good for including in our Farm Share}
{pictured above: Sweet Potato flower}Fall is also the perfect time to visit and spend time on farms! {It’s just too hot in July and August…} This Saturday is the 2nd Annual RVA Farm Tour & Cookout, with the Cookout happening here at our farm. Ticket sales are open through tomorrow, Friday. Also this fall is our annual CSA Social in which we take the opportunity to say Thank You!! to our amazing CSA members who are the very real lifeline of this farm. The CSA Social takes place Sunday Oct 22 from 2:00-5:00. Every CSA members should have received an email invitation to the event. Please visit that email and give us the favor of a reply so we know how many people to expect. {Pictured above: our fall fennel! We love this cut and roasted with root vegetables.}Saturday’s & Monday’s Farm Share will most likely include:Salad Mix, Arugula, Kale OR Rainbow Chard (the opposite of what you received last week), Beans (green, yellow, purple), Sweet Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Radishes OR Turnips, Summer Squash OR Cucumbers.

Vegetable Notes & Recipe Suggestions…also cataloged on our Recipe Page and see our Pinterest Page
Salad Mix & Peppers – are likely always made better with high-quality homemade dressing, which is always better when it is very easy to make. See this Ranch Dressing recipe by Bon Appetit that gives a very simple description of how to make Ranch at home. Then pour it on your Salad and dunk your peppers into it.Arugula – Sundried Tomato Pizza with Arugula topping is scrumptious, and Arugula on top of any Pizza makes it better. Plus, then you get pizza-and-salad-in-one. It’s a two-for. French Ham Baguette Sandwich with Arugula is tasty. (And we make fabulous baguettes. We bake only a few beyond what is pre-ordered on Wednesdays so if you would like one, you should pre-order through our Bread ordering page here.)Kale OR Rainbow Chard – Remember these greens are interchangeable. Try Sauteed Kale with Garlic, Shallots, & Capers. (We will sub yellow onions for the shallots, even though some fine chefs will call that sacrilegious.) Spicy Tuscan Kale and Ricotta Grandma Pie will also be perfect with our Curly Kale or Chard. (The recipe even says so, thus assuring you that we’re not making up this substitution thing.) It’s a quasi-pizza recipe and you can adjust the spicy ingredient as your household prefers.Beans – Add some zing to your Beans by making Blistered Green Beans with Garlic and Miso. This is likely the last week of beans for the season. Enjoy them! They are the crop that is the most laborious for us to harvest. This likely makes them taste even better to us, and the end to their season is bittersweet. Our knees and backs win, our tastebuds and stomachs lose. Radishes – We upped our Radish Dip recipe by making it this way: Clean and trim one bunch of radishes. Dice them up quickly by pulsing in a food processor. Mix them in a bowl with one package of cream cheese (softened), a dash of lemon juice, a few grinds of sea salt, and a couple of teaspoons of Fox Point seasoning from Penzey’s Spices. We served this at a work day we had here at the farm this past weekend. It was consumed before the delicious hummus we served. Turnips – This sweet variety of turnip (Hakurei is the name) usually gets prepared by us as Glazed Turnips, however we also slice them raw on top of salads or dip them in hummus or Radish Dip (recipe above). Shishito Peppers – Reminder: These are frying peppers. They are meant to be cooked, and cooked whole. Don’t cut them! Saute in a pan or cook on a grill with salt and oil until they darken/soften/blister. They are flavorful! Eat them whole, biting all the way up to the stem. Enjoy them as a side dish or as a topping on something, like a hot dog or tofu. See Epicurious’ Sauteed Shishito recipe. Here’s also a Collection of Shishito recipes.

STORAGE TIPS:Radishes/Turnips/All Root Vegetables – Keep refrigerated in a sealed bag or container to prevent tops and roots from getting wilty. Most tops can be prepared/cooked in some way. If you are at a loss for how to prepare the tops, include them in a batch of Vegetable Stock. Peppers – Prefer refrigeration in a sealed bag or container, but will keep at room temp for a couple of days. Will get limp if not kept in a sealed container.Cucumbers – Best kept in refrigerator in sealed bag or container so they do not get limp.Summer Squash – Best kept in refrigerator in sealed bag or container so they do not get limp.Green Beans/String Beans – Best kept in refrigerator in sealed bag or container so they do not get limp.Bagged Greens – Keep refrigerated in the bag in which we pack them.Bunched Greens (Kale, Chard, etc.) – Keep refrigerated in a sealed bag or container to prevent leaves from getting wilty. If they get wilty, trim ¼ inch off bottom of stems and set upright in a glass/vase. They will suck up the water and be turgid again.